Fourth extension payment of $10g paid to Garrison City

Thursday

Nov 29, 2012 at 3:15 AM

By Michelle Kingstonmkingston@fosters.com

DOVER — Mark Dickinson of Dickinson Development has now delivered the fourth $10,000 extension payment to the city.

Dickinson signed a contract after being chosen by the city to develop the waterfront project, that said if he was unable to break ground within three years of Aug. 26, 2009, the day he signed paperwork, he would need to pay the city $10,000 per month until he did.

City Council voted on Nov. 14 to spend half of the checks delivered by Dickinson each month on relocating the skateboard park to Maglaras Park. The skateboard park is being forced to move because of the waterfront development project. The Recreation Department will be given up to $30,000 from Dickinson’s extension payments, which had previously been going into the city’s general fund. The remainder of the money needed to relocate the park will be fundraised through the Recreation Department and the skateboard park volunteers.

Back in August, when the first extension payment was received, Dickinson said he was still lining up equity investors and obtaining permits, making him unable to close on the property.

Dickinson has 24 months before the Land Disposition Agreement with the city is broken. He can continue to pay the city $10,000 a month until Aug. 26, 2014. On this date, if his unable to begin construction, contract obligations between all parties involved in the development process will expire, according to City Manager Michael Joyal.

In May of this year, Dickinson gave the Cocheco Waterfront Development Advisory Committee an updated timeline of how he sees the project progressing from then until 2015. The timeline showed that he would be working on permits through November, working on closing on the property with the city for the first half of 2013 and breaking ground by the summer.

The large-scale project, which was planned and approved by Dickinson and the city, will bring in new restaurants, commercial buildings, apartments and additional parking.

Chris Parker, Dover’s Director of Planning and Community Development, said Dickinson will update the Cocheco Waterfront Development Advisory Committee on December 11 on where he is at with the project. Parker said Dickinson’s first phase of the project would be to construct the bulk of the property, including the infrastructure of residential and restaurant spaces.